Town of Spring Lake Regular Meeting of the Board of Aldermen Municipal Building 300 Ruth Street Spring Lake, NC 28390

Transcription

1 Town of Spring Lake Regular Meeting of the Board of Aldermen Municipal Building 300 Ruth Street Spring Lake, NC July MINUTES 7 p.m. The Spring Lake Board of Aldermen held a regular scheduled meeting in the Grady Howard Conference Room ofthe Spring Lake Municipal Building with Mayor Chris V. Rey presiding. Board Members Present: Mayor Pro Tern James O'Garra Alderman James Christian Alderwoman Densie Lucas Alderwoman Fredricka Sutherland Others Present: Tad Davis, Town Manager Paul Hoover, Public Works Director Troy McDuffie, Police Chief Claiburn Watson, Interim Finance Director J.C. Combs, Asst. Recreation Director Byron Blumenfeld, Water Resource Manager John Kleinert, Maintenance Director Jason Williams, Asst. Fire Chief Doris Snider, Senor Center Director Janet Smith, Office Assistant 2. Invocation Alderwoman Sutherland gave a non-sectarian invocation. 3. Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Rey led the meeting in the pledge of allegiance. 4. Additions or Deletions to Agenda Mayor Rey requested to delete the Chief of Police Presentation from the agenda as item 8b. 5. Approval of Agenda The Board approved the agenda. Action: The Board approved a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Motion by: Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra Second by: Alderwoman Lucas (A copy of the agenda is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes - see attachment one.) 6. Approval of Consent Items The Board approved the consent items:

2 Board inutcs July 27, 2015, Page: 2 of 6 a. Minutes of the July 13, 2015 Regular Meeting Action: The Board approved a motion to approve the consent items for July 13, 2015 Regular Meeting. Second by: Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra 7. Public Forum There was no one to speak at public forum. 8. Presentations a. John Ackers Eagle Scout Project at Mendoza Park- JC Combs Mr. Ackers says he is presenting his Eagle Scout proposal. He says his project is about 4ft by Sft. around a flagpole to replace the wooden surround currently there. He says he wanted to make it eye appealing to the people in the park. Mr. Ackers says he will recruit people to support him from places like the unit such as Troop 772 and several family members, groups, and adult leaders to help with his project. He says he will not need any permits or permissions and tota] cost will be $295 and he will be funding this himself. Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra asked how this will be funded. Mr. Ackers says that he says he will be funding it by himself. Alderman Christian says that he would like some contact information and he would like to make a donation to his project. Mayor Rey thanked him for his presentation and told him he knows the construction will look great and we all look forward to seeing it. b. Manager's Update- Mr. Davis Mr. Davis greeted the board and says there are three issues that affected the town this week. The first one was the changeover to our server with IT element and he says it was an important update that needed to take place. He says that we switched over from Windows 2003 to Windows 2013 because the old server could not handle this task any more. Mr. Davis says there were some challenges and he says Mr. Blumenfeld and his team have completed about 95 percent of the works so far. He says the rest of the kinks will be worked out over the next 48 to 72 hours. He says it has been first class effort on behalf of the IT team to keep communications going for the town and citizens. The second thing is debris removal and the two trucks we use for that have been down over the course oflast five or six days. So we have seen lots of debris piling up and he has been driving around the area with Mr. Hoover and Mr. Kleinert taking a look at these things. The clam shell truck came back up on Friday and they brought in workers from Mr. Kleinert's department on Friday to continue the mission and by 7:30 this morning all of the routes have been taken care of and we will be following up on that this week. The next good news he has to report is the second clam truck is being developed and he does not have a date as to when it will be completed but that will be a backup for events like this. The third thing is because; we got a lot of calls in town from citizens about the flag. He says the Governor asked for the flag to be flown at half-staff on Monday in commemoration of fallen members of service. He says late Tuesday afternoon we received a late Presidential Proclamation which causes us to bring national colors and associated flags to fly half-staffthrough sunset on Saturday the 25th. (A copy of the agenda memo is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes-

3 see attachment two.) Board Minutes July 7..7, 2015, Page 3 of 6 9. New Business a. Appointment, Community Appearance Commission - Mayor Rey Mayor Rey reported that Mrs. Patricia Van Lowe-Dean submitted an application to serve on the Community Appearance Commission. If appointed she will serve a 3-year term expiring July 31,2018. Action: The Board approved a motion to appoint Ms. Stephens and Mrs. Patricia Van Lowe Dean to the Community Appearance Commission for a 3-year term expiring July 31, Motion by: Alderman Christian Second by: Alderwoman Sutherland b. Amendment, Budget Ordinance (2015) 7, Recreation and Senior Centers- Mr. Davis Mr. Davis spoke about the June 22nct board meeting where the board voted to separate the Parks and Recreation Department and Senior Enrichment organizations into two separate departments. Since they're going to be two separate units there is a need to provide a revised fiscal year budget ordinance. No change has been made to Appendix A of the Budget Ordinance. He says there are no additional costs associated with this modification with the existing budget. He says on page 18 of notes it shows where we separate the different line items for Recreation and Senior Enrichment Center for this budget. He says on page 26 it shows the breakdown of the number and type of positions of the two. Mr. Davis says he is recommending that board approved the revised Budget Ordinance. Alderwoman Sutherland questioned Appendix B page 18. She says the Finance Assistant Director should have been renamed to something else but it still remains the same. It is on page 25 of Appendix B. Mr. Watson says if you look at couple pages over that has been resolved and he says that they will make correction on the Appendix B form. Alderwoman Sutherland says because the way it is stated on form it is misleading to the people. Action: The Board approved a motion to approve Budget Ordinance Amendment (2015) 7. Second by: Alderman Christian (A copy of the agenda memo and Budget Ordinance Amendment (2015) 7 is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes - see attachment three.) c. Budget Amendment , Recreation and Senior Centers- Mr. Davis and Mr. Watson Mr. Davis says this is following on the proceeding amendment which would basically provide the authorization of the separation of the Park and Recreation into two different entities. The amendment will allow them to proceed in separating the finances of the Park and Recreation and Senior Enrichment Center. The first page on 40-41lays out the removal of Senior Enrichment Center funding from the overall Parks and Recreation budget.

4 Board Minutes July 27, 2015, Page 4 of 6 Action: The Board approved a motion to approve budget amendment Second by: Alderman Christian (A copy of the agenda memo and Budget Amendment is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes - see attachment four.) d. Amendment, Budget Ordinance ( 2015) 8, Mercer Group Implementation- Mr. Davis Mr. Davis says in this amendment they want to amend Appendix A. They recommend that non- sworn and sworn police and firemen pay plan be amended. This is shown in Appendix B which recommends authorized employee positions. Both of these actions are the result of the Mercer Group study which they have outlined on a memo to the Board. The study also recommends bringing salaries that was below up to the new guidelines that were covered in this study. They recommended the minimum of that pay grade to be paid to the employees. He says this will cost $55, This amount to 18 individuals that were below that minimum level will now be brought up to the correct level for that position. He says this is all based on recommendations of Mercer Group. He says he has had a great conversation with Mr. Robertson about these changes. This is an all important step to get us where we need to be for pay increases due to inflation. Mr. Davis says his recommendation is to approve the budget ordinance (2015) 8 amending Appendix A and Appendix B. Action: The Board approved a motion to approve Budget Ordinance Amendment (2015) 8, amending Appendix A and Appendix B. Second by: Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra [A copy of the agenda memo and Budget Ordinance Amendment (2015) 8 is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes - see attachment five.) e. Contract for Administrative Services and Technical Support- Mr. Davis Mr. Davis says he request approval of contract for administrative services and technical support. He says this will be done on an as needed basis for only about ten hours a week from Mr. Andrew Wilkison. Mr. Wilkison recently served as interim town manager and he says he did a tremendous job for town in providing him the help he needed in transitioning into this positon. He says as a consultant he would initially provide an on call technical assistance and administrative services which will include assistant in research and preparation of special administrative projects of the town manager. He says he will assist with review of the financial and administrative policies of the town. He says we have a dozen of these policies which some of them are board approved and some of manager approved policies. Mr. Davis says a lot of them need to be updated according to law and statues and revised concerning our current operational procedures. The second thing he would do is help retool our personnel policy because the one we have now was enacted in 1999 and some revision and policies have changed since then. He says if we want to move forward in the direction the Mercer Group has recommended us to do we will need to revise and update these policies. The next task

5 Hoard Minutes July 27, 2015, Page 5 of 6 would be to review and update our emergency policy for the town. He says we always want to be prepared for the worst. He says in discussion with public safety leadership that he thinks it is imperative that we take the time to update our safety procedures. He says we have a great opportunity with an individual who knows what ittakes to getthe town in order. Mr. Davis says these are things that he has discussed with Board members when he met with them last week about implementing procedures to help get us where we need to be. He says his recommendation is that the Board approve this contract so we bring this very capable individual aboard to assist us to move forward in positive direction. The chair recognized Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra, Alderwoman Sutherland and Alderman Christian. Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra asked how much we would have to pay him for mileage. He says we would have to pay for mileage that goes further than Pinehurst and Mr. Davis says that is correct. Alderwoman Sutherland says she did not see a total amount and if we are utilizing him for about ten hours a week that would be $ She says if we utilize him for a year it is $130, She says we she spoke with him he wanted to get Mr. Wilkison's help with policies. She says we have hired a capable Town Manager to do this. She says it looks like to her we are still using tax payer dollars to pay for two town mangers just to help you. She says as her colleague stated as well as he stated she says she told the newspaper she felt like we hired a capable individual. She says she felt like he would be able to hit the ground running once he came on board. She says the first two weeks he has hit the ground running and she wants to commend him on the work he has done so far. She says this seems like we would be paying for two town mangers a full time and part-time one. She says again dealing with tax payer dollars and if we use him for a whole year it is going to be $130,000. She says she would like to get on track and she says they had discussed looking at other agencies to do just that. She says the other agencies would be able to get us more of what we need compared to the limited things Mr. Wilkison can do. Alderman Christian says he has not had a chance to talk to him in depth about this but he could support this if only it was for 90 days instead of a whole year. He says maybe we do a renewal after 90 days have passed if needed. He says this is how he stands on this matter at this moment. He says he cannot see doing this for a whole year for reviewing our policies. Mayor Rey asks Alderman Christian is he asking for a friendly amendment to the motion. He says yes. Mr. Davis then apologizes stating he did not mean for this to last a year. He says he wants to apologize to the Board for not putting a limitation on the time he would use these services. The intent was never to make this a open ended commitment instead the intent was to have someone who has a lot of experience with state of North Carolina and with local government expertise to help do this in very short duration. He says we should have put in the contract a provision stating this is for 60 or 90 days only. He says they would come back to the Board if they thought they needed to go any longer than that. Action: The Board approved a motion to move forward and amend the contract to reflect 90 days instead of year for Administrative and Technical Services with Mr. Wilkison. Motion by: Alderwoman Lucas Second by: Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra (A copy of the agenda memo and contract is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of these minutes - see attachment six.)

6 Board Minutes July 27, :2015, Page 6 of 6 Mayor Rey says before we adjourn there was a recommendation from citizens asking to put the signs of town meeting in neighborhoods also. The Board agreed this is a good idea and if we do not have enough we would simply order more. Adjournment. Action: There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 7:38p.m.. Motion: Mayor Pro Tern O'Garra Second by: Alderman Christian, ITcM/)vm Ja et Smith, Office Assistant ATTEST: